Posts by James Roberts

Any doubts we may have had following last week’s episode of Ash vs. Evil Dead were completely shattered this week. Hail to the king, baby.

Labyrinth of Lies offers a unique perspective on a nation’s attempts to regain its soul.

Riddled with tropes, cliches, and sentimentalism, My All American is the perfect argument for updating the sports movie formula.

The 33 could have been really, really bad. Blessedly, it’s not.

Love the Coopers is every bit as tedious as actually going home for the holidays.

[rating=7.00] “Bait” There felt like there was a something missing from this week’s Ash vs. Evil Dead, and I’m pretty sure that was Sam Raimi. Whereas last week’s pilot reveled in the madcap insanity of Raimi’s original vision, “Bait” felt a bit stunted. It wasn’t bad by any means, but this week’s director, Michael J. […]

[rating=5.00] It’s easy to forget, in our modern world, the painstaking fight for universal suffrage that beset not only our country, but countries around the world. History tends to gloss over the realities of the struggle, writing so that the world simply woke up one day, realized we were wrong, and made the appropriate changes. […]

[rating=9.00] It never fails to grab headlines or touch our hearts or incite our imaginations with rage when news breaks about a kidnapping victim being freed from the confines of their prisons. We talk about the horror, the PTSD, and the brutality, but we never really think about it. Really, it’s almost too terrible to […]

[rating=8.00] I’ve often wondered what the movie The Notebook would like it if it wasn’t packed to the gills with trite sentimentalism and forced messaging. That’s a snobbish perspective, I admit, but the movie’s popularity baffled me upon its release, and its continued popularity continues to baffle me. My cinematic snobbery aside, there’s something about […]

Nothing sends the movie world buzzing quite like the impending release of a Quentin Tarantino film. The director has built an empire out of slick genre movies that defy traditions and redefine cool. A new Tarantino is less a film than an event, sending audiences to theaters in droves and forcing the rest of the […]

[rating=9.00] “El Jefe” Ash is back, and holy hell, is it groovy to see him. The Evil Dead series is one of the more remarkable works of modern camp classics, with an ever expanding base of fans that welcome more and more members into its fold with each passing year. It’s timeless in every sense of […]

[rating=4.00] The cycle of zombies continues to turn. The subgenre has gone from terrifying to joke to terrifying since George Romero first horrified audiences with Night of the Living Dead back in the 60’s. While the last decade and a half has seen a resurgence of the undead infestation of our collective nightmares, their prevalence […]

[rating=5.00] In a way, Our Brand is Crisis is not dissimilar from the kid on the playground who knows they could do great things on the school soccer team, but who also lacks the courage to try out—all of their potential becomes moot at the hands of their inaction, and instead of greatness they fade […]

[rating=9.00] It cannot be mere coincidence of fate that the latest opus from those Tennessee titans of doom/psych/jam/rock, All Them Witches, is being released the day before Halloween. No, nothing about Dying Surfer Meets His Maker has been left to chance, and I can only conclude that its release was considered carefully before a date […]

The build up to the next chapter in the Netflix/Marvel team up, Jessica Jones, has been slow and steady since Daredevil premiered on the streaming service last spring. Leaked set images trickled in throughout the summer, giving us brief glimpses at our characters and tantalizing us with possibility. The past several weeks have seen a […]

[rating=10.00] Biopics are a dime a dozen these days, mostly owing to the fact that the formula has been perfected. Ever since Ray, the beats of any biographical movie have been predictable and boring, even when the movie itself is otherwise pretty good. The modern draw of biopics has been the performances—how deeply immersed in […]

[rating=2.00] Bill Murray is at that stage where it doesn’t matter what choices he makes as an actor. His eminence is such that his mere presence in a film is enough to draw an audience, and his artistic acclaim all but assures a remarkable performance. For the most part, Murray wields his power with wisdom, […]

The new trailer for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens made its debut last night on Monday Night Football, and the world has lost its collective mind. Already, the trailer has been viewed over 13 million times on YouTube, making it one of the most watched and most celebrated movie trailers of all time. […]

[rating=9.00] Guillermo del Toro is a director who’s never lacked for vision. His is an artistry so distinct, so unique, so specific that it bleeds through in every frame of every film that’s ever bore his name. From Cronos, to Hellboy, to Pan’s Labyrinth to Pacific Rim, his films are so striking and so vivid […]

[rating=2.00] I sincerely hope that everyone involved in the making of Freeheld feels appropriately ashamed of themselves. They’ve taken a wonderful, inspiring, heart-wrenching, infuriating, and beautiful true story and given it a movie with all the emotional resonance and presence of a Lifetime Original. It’s not just bad, it’s offensively bad. It’s a pandering mess […]